Context
by JimmyDANj2
Summary: He wondered just what, in her eyes, if anything, placed him apart from them. And whether that could've made her value him any less. He rather thought he and she were similar. Like two peas in a pod. All in the eyes of the beholder, he supposed. Black/Yami


She lounged about near the park bench, eyes slanted in unusual lethargy. She wasn't normally lazy, but this afternoon, after all was said and done regarding the incident at Tenjouin's mansion-at-sea, Yami didn't feel up to doing much.

Her hand reached out and scratched behind the ears of a white kitten. It meowed contentedly.

Crouched down, hunched on her knees, Yami continued to scratch the happy feline, letting a rare, minuscule smile grace her own features.

A shadow was cast over her, and she abruptly halted her ministrations. Feeling a fraction of the lethargy leaving her, Yami craned her neck back slightly to observe what was behind her.

"I thought you already left. Is there something keeping you here?"

A gloved hand went slowly up to smooth out the barely maintained hair jutting out at spiked angles.

"Not particularly."

Yami resumed scratching the kitten, turning her head and attention back to her front.

"Then, for what reason are you staying? The job is, by all standards, finished. Rather thoroughly cleaned up, too."

Golden eyes flickered over her form.

"I know."

Yami paused once more and gazed behind her. Her face displayed her casual inquiry.

He continued steadily, though a little uncertainly.

"Just...wanting to make sure that all loose ends were tied up."

"Loose ends? The criminal has been taken into captivity."

He shook his head.

"Not that. Loose ends...perhaps regarding you, a little bit."

A brief burst of surprise on Yami's visage was gone the next moment.

He shifted, not exactly uncomfortably, not exactly gracefully. Perhaps a little anxiously.

"Have you...found a life, here on Earth? You seemed content, from what I could see. In fact, I was a bit startled at the complete overhaul to your demeanor."

Yami raised an eyebrow, faintly amused.

"Though I suppose you would talk so formally when on a mission...this isn't how you regularly speak."

He shot her a slightly accusatory glance.

"And how would you know how I normally speak?"

"Obviously, because we've met before today." An almost-roll of her eyes. Met with a similar action from him.

"Yes, but not that much. I can't really say I've had extended interactions with you."

"I sense a tone in that. Is this leading somewhere?"

"Tch. As perceptive as ever."

"How contradictory. You can recognize my trait but I can't recognize yours?"

He shrugged.

"Point taken. In any case, I was just...wondering at your current circumstance. You're happy?"

She put a finger to her chin, in the briefest of considerations. A nod.

"I suppose. I've made friends here on this world."

"That's a first. Which might explain how different you are from before. You cherish these friends?"

She thought abruptly of Mikan.

"Yes. They mean more to me, perhaps, than anything I've had before I came here."

He twitched slightly, for some unknown reason.

Silence befell the duo for several minutes. The cat meowed loudly when it realized it wasn't getting scratched. This prompted Yami to resume her ministrations.

"...Then," he continued. "Would I fit into the same category?"

"...What do you mean?"

"I mean, do I count as your friend as well?"

She grinned, for the first time.

"Is that envy I detect?" she said, hoping to infict...she wasn't sure, but to at least elicit some sort of reaction.

It didn't work exactly as she'd wanted.

"No," he shook his head seriously. "Not envy. Just curiosity. Do these...situations separate them from me somehow? How am I whatever I am to you? Which brings up a better question that you've yet to answer. What am I to you?"

She seemed to consider this.

"Well..." she started slowly. "You know me in ways they couldn't, I suppose. They would have hardly any idea of my past. Not in the ways that you and I comprehend our more morbid world. You can see sides to me that I hope to forever shield them from. You realize, of course, that this is a threat as well. If you ever bring my friends any closer to our blood-spattered world in any way...I shall personally slaughter you."

A mischievous smile broke out on his face.

"Oh, you will, will you? After all I've done for you? I'm hurt, Golden Darkness."

She did not smile, but instead drew her head further into her knees.

"...I thank you for saving me, and enabling my freedom," she said quietly. "But this is the first time I could experience...these particular kinds of joys. I've come to learn that Earth is one planet in a million. There is no other quite like it."

He laughed, and put a hand delicately on her head, lightly touching the hair from which her name was partially inspired.

"No need to worry, Li'l Princess." Yami bristled angrily at his old nickname for her.

He smirked, as if knowing exactly how that name taunted her.

"I would never take something like this away from you. Not after all you've been through. Though this brings me back to what I was trying to understand before, and for what you consistently attempt to avoid answering. Am I your friend, same as the humans?"

It was her turn to laugh. Albeit softly.

"There is certainly no way you are the same to me as those I've come to cherish on this planet."

His face drooped ever so slightly.

"How could you be?" She continued. "To me, you are completely different. You were my savior, my closest thing to consistency in my dark, horrid past, my only civil means of connection with that same past. You can't be my friend as Mikan and the others are. You are something else entirely."

He sighed.

"I still can't really tell if what you are saying is pleasant or not. And I _still_ think you're avoiding my question." He seemed to pout.

She really rolled her eyes this time.

"For an infamous, deadly assassin, Black, you complain like a baby."

"Well, excuse me, then."

Yami sighed, then suddenly turned around and softly hugged him.

He blinked, taken by complete surprise for the first time.

She abruptly stopped, then turned back to the kitten.

"...Hm. Black, do you have any milk?"

"Milk? What's that? If it's something manufactured by humans, why would you think I would have it?"

She briefly glanced at him.

"Just because it seems to fit you. In any case, never mind."

Black shook his head in half-exasperation. He then grinned, and turned back in the other direction.

"I'll see you around, Li'l Princess."

Yami's lips quirked in a half-smile, then stood up, and stretched her limbs.

She glanced in the direction he left and observed his rippling black cloak. Her eyes trailed over the long shadow cast by his broad back.

She watched him leave.

Her comrade-in-arms.

Her savior.

Her friend.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Wow. The ending was unexpectedly sappy. More so than what I was originally going for. Oh well, I think it works. I believe this is the most lighthearted fic I've ever written. In any case, this idea permeated my over-wrought brain during my obsession with the Black Cat fandom. _Anything_ Yabuki Kentaro draws is automatically made of awesome, but what I really wanted to do was to write something about the two counterparts to Kentaro's two most epic characters ever: Train and Eve. I mean, when I first read the chapters in the To-Love-ru manga about Black, Train's counterpart, I exploded in fan-crazed bliss. How could I _not_ write about Black and Yami? And there's so much potential in their relationship. When I wrote this fic, I was really excited; I was like, "Ha! I'm writing about Black and Yami and relating their mannerisms to Train and Eve!" ...Hm. Rambled for too long. Anyway, make of this fic what you will. You can see it as a pairing, but that really wasn't mainly what I was going for. Review, if you so desire, or have the time.


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